The Next Life
by The All-Seeing Sharingan
Summary: For a Nobody, death was thought to be the end of everything. Even when others moved on to the next life, the Nobodies faded and became nothing at all. [Full Summary Inside. Rated for language]
1. Prologue

**Summary: **For a Nobody, death was thought to be the end of everything. Even when others moved on to the next life, the Nobodies faded and became nothing at all. But, on the Destiny Islands, two years after the fall of Organization XIII in Kingdom Hearts, seven Nobodies have been given a second chance. With nothing left of their memories but their ages and their own names, these Nobodies hold the keys to unlocking their past...if they can all meet again in the next life.

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**Prologue**

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_How could this happen_..._I was so close_._ Then, that little brat had to come and ruin everything_.

He lay broken on the cold floor of the thirteenth story of his castle, reflecting on what had happened only moments before. That child, the wielder of the legendary keyblade, had made such a fool of him. He had been so sure that nothing could possibly go wrong. His plan had been perfect, flawless! It _should_ have come off without a hitch. Yet still, he lay here on his back in the darkness, bleeding and barely alive. He was dying; he knew it was so. There was nothing that could save him. He would die here, and he would have accomplished nothing. He would never have known what it was like to have a heart, to truly have been able to feel any sort of emotion. He was completely empty, devoid of it; he could feel nothing.

_And yet_..._it seems as though I wasn't __**entirely**__ emotionless_._ There were times when I thought I was happy, or angry_._ Times when I was sure I truly did hate someone_._ Times when I thought that I_...

He winced at the stabbing pain that shot through him; was this really what dying was like? He had always thought death came quickly, but for him, it appeared to be taking an eternity. Why couldn't it just be over? He didn't want to reflect anymore, he didn't want to think. He just wanted this pain to stop; he just wanted to fade.

_I have only one other regret, _he thought to himself, as his eyes began to close tiredly. _I never told her_..._just how much it meant to me to be able to trust her_._ How much it meant for her just to be near me_... He felt his breathing begin to slow; his lungs felt leaden. The pain in his chest was growing worse, but he couldn't force himself to breathe.

_I don't know where people like us go when we die, or if we go anywhere at all_._ Maybe we just fade, and that's all_..._but wherever you are, in another life, another world, or nowhere at all_..._at least I can join you, now_.

And with one last, ragged breath, he stilled, and thought no more.


	2. The Martial Artist

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**Chapter One:**

**The Martial Artist**

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**Present Day  
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A loud exclamation of pain rang through the empty house as she fell out of her bed and hit the floor with a crash. The blonde untangled herself from the blankets and sat up, rubbing her head where she had hit it and glared at her alarm clock, which had woken her up by blaring a _very_ obnoxious metal song in her ear. Why did people listen to that garbage, anyway? More importantly, why the _hell_ was her clock set so early, it was only seven-thirty, for god's sake! She shot the clock another dirty look and picked herself up off the floor, unceremoniously dumping the bedclothes back onto her mattress and stretching a bit, just happening to catch a glimpse of the calendar on her wall. Oh, that's right, she was testing for her third Dan black belt in Taekwon-Do today, wasn't she? That explained why her clock had felt the need to wake her up at this hour, she had set it to do so the night before. Well, it may have been painful, but it had worked, she was wide awake, now.

She snatched up her uniform and the towel she had set out with it the previous night and headed straight for the shower. She had to make sure she was quick, she had to be there to start her test at eight-thirty. As she stepped into the shower, she allowed her mind to wander back to the dream she had last night. It was the same sort as every other one she had had since she had come to this place from...wherever it was she was orignally from. She couldn't remember; when she had washed up on the beach two years ago, all she had remembered was her own name and her age, nothing else. But every now and then - though, it had been growing more frequent, lately - she would dream of an odd place, a dark castle, with people she recognized, but she knew she had never met. Strange-looking people, wearing long black coats with hoods that covered their faces completely, though occasionally they would take them off. She, herself, was wearing one of those coats in these dreams, though she knew she didn't own anything like that. There was one in particular she felt drawn to, one she felt like she knew better than any of the others, but of course, she couldn't have met him before, either. Of course, now that she thought about it, he _did _greatly resemble someone who lived here in this town, who had shown up around the same time as she had...

"Oh, _stop_ that, you're going to drive yourself crazy wondering, you idiot," she chided herself, tying her belt in its proper place on her uniform. "Just concentrate on your testing, nothing else matters right now."

Her bag was already waiting by the door, exactly where she had left it. Well, of course it was, who would have moved it? She lived alone, who could have moved it if she hadn't? Bag in hand, she stepped outside and locked the door, then stepped off her front step and began the walk to the dojo, with a quick glance at her watch. Eight sharp, she had taken a bit longer than she had wanted to. No matter, it wouldn't take that long to get there.

"Hey! Larxene!"

Larxene stopped and glanced back over shoulder at the sound of her name being called. She stepped aside to avoid being barrelled into by the boy who had called to her, said boy just barely managing to stop himself pitching over as he skidded to a stop. His three friends had followed him, but they had at least had the sense to _walk_ rather than run headlong at her. "Sora," she greeted, resisting the urge to roll her eyes at her hyperactive friend. Really, the boy seemed like he was on a permanent acid trip, or at least constantly had some form of sugar in his system. Thank god he had Riku, Kairi, and Namine to control him and make sure he didn't hurt himself. "And what are you on this morning, then?"

Kairi gave Larxene a look, but she took no notice. Namine laughed a bit at her joke, and Riku smirked a bit. "We have no idea, but whatever it is, I think it's time we got him into rehab for it," the silver-haired boy answered, to which Sora responded with a loud "HEY!" Nobody paid any attention to this, however, the rest of his group instead moving to either side of Larxene to walk with her. There was silence for a short while, before Kairi spoke up.

"So, have you heard what's being said about the florist's son?"

She hadn't, but she didn't really pay much attention to gossip, anyway. Still, she'd bite this time, let Kairi tell her little story. As long as it kept Sora quiet. "No, I haven't. What are they saying about him this time?"

"It's mainly just the girls, but they're all saying he's having weird dreams about some girl, and a lot of people all in black. Most of the attention is on the dreams about the girl, of course, but still, doesn't that sound weird?"

Larxene couldn't think of how she should respond to this. The florist's son was having the same sort of dreams as she was? That was strange. It was odd enough that she saw someone who resembled him every time she had those dreams of hers, but it was just downright _weird_ that his subconscious should be doing the same things to him as her own was to her. She seemed to remember, too, that the man in her dreams had a certain affinity to plants...

"Larxene? Hey, are you okay?" Namine's worried voice cut into her thoughts, and it was only now that Larxene realized she hadn't heard a word that had been said for at least five minutes. "Huh?" _Clever response, Larxene_. "Oh, yeah. I'm alright, just thinking, is all," she replied, which seems to satisfy the smaller blonde girl. "Nervous about your test? Well, you shouldn't worry, you'll do great. You're the best in that class, it'll be easy for you," she said, giving Larxene an encouraging look. "Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Thanks, Namine." _Why did you lie? That's not what you were thinking at all,_ she told herself, though she found herself answering rather quickly. _Well, what was I __**supposed**__ to say? "No, that's not it, I'm just thinking about how I see the florist's son almost every night in my dreams?" Yeah __**right**__! Like that wouldn't sound just a **little **bit off?_

"Don't forget, we were going to hang out downtown after your test today," Kairi reminded her, looking rather skeptical that Larxene's response to Namine was all that sincere. "So don't be late, alright?"

"I know, I won't be late, I promise," Larxene told her. "Well, good luck, then," Riku said. "Break a leg," Sora added, to which Riku replied, "That's a _theatre_ term, stupid." Sora looked insulted. "I know that, but she's doing martial arts, people break bones in that all the time!" Riku looked like he desperately needed a wall to introduce his forehead to; Larxene found it difficult to keep herself from laughing at him, so she quickly bid her friends goodbye and entered the dojo, shaking her head at Sora's absolute stupidity.

_Well_,_ here goes nothing_.


End file.
